Background
So, you guys must be thinking… ‘why write a review about a two year old stick!’. Well I couldn’t really find a review of a DII on the forum, and since the moulds hardly change at Gryphon the review is still relevant. Although certain flaws I may or may not have found might have been fixed these last couple of year. But I’ll let Craig Boyne inform you on that, if he wants to.

I found this stick in a store near my house which has one of the bigger selections of sticks here in the Netherlands. And last year they finally started selling Gryphon. I walked in the shop about a month ago and found that they were selling their old stock of 2014 Taboo range Gryphon sticks for €80 (taboo bluesteel €85). You have to know that I’ve been wanting to play with a taboo bluesteel for about 2 or 3 years now, but they’ve been crazy expensive IMO (€220 at least). So the 85 euro’s was a great bargain. I’ve even told my teammates about the sale, and two of them bought one as well.

Looks
I’ll start the review off with the looks of the stick. They’re not that bad. It’s a solid and straightforward looking stick, that doesn’t really draw that much attention or stands out as much like an Adidas LX24. I have to say though that the dark blue colour (which looks blackish on the gryphon website) of the bluesteel version is the cause of that though, because the regular Taboos of that year with the bright green colour pop a lot more. But I’m pretty happy about the looks of the Bluesteel! The letters of ‘Gryphon’ are placed on the back using stickers, which I feel is a bit old school, and certainly leaves room for error. Seeing as my team mate has apparently bought a Yryphon. The graphics on the inside of the stick are painted on if I’m correct

My main concern with the paint though is that it doesn’t last long at all….. The paint damage you can see on the pictures was after just 15 minutes of playing with it. And it’s actually not just the paint that wears and tears pretty fast, the layers below the paint wear out very fast as well!

I have to mention though, that I do still play on a sand-based pitch, so faster wearing of the stick is usual. But I usually play with a stick for 1,5/2 seasons before I get a new one. I’m not sure if this one will last a season.

Feel
I’ve had to regrip this stick so many times because I couldn’t get it right (totally my fault), but I finally fixed it!! Gryphons come with a very thin handle and very short grip, and this stick was no different. You either like it or you don’t, but if you’ve got big hands you’re very likely to spend some extra money on a chubby or at least a chamois to place it on top. In my case I placed an original dita grip over the Gryphon one, and another Chamois on top of that. I thought that was good, but in the end I found it just a bit too thick and removed the chamois.

Seeing as it’s a Bluesteel I expected it to hit hard, and in that the stick definitely didn’t disappoint. If you hit it correctly the balls just blast of from the face of the stick. And that’s exactly what I wanted. Even with tomahawks the balls just fly away like you’re hitting a tennis ball or something. Which is something I didn’t expect at all. And that’s because the stick doesn’t have a very sharp edge. In fact it’s quite thick, which usually means a slower pace on the ball. But I’m guessing Gryphon reinforced the tomahawk zone a bit, or layered the stick in a way that it’s still creates enormous power.

The thicker tomahawk zone does help with keeping them backhanded balls grounded. You’ll have to get just a bit lower to the floor in order to get them flying into the net.

With the stiffness of the stick you do lose some feeling on the ball. I did have a bit of trouble with that at first, since I used my Beikou Low 70 before this one (which has a lot of feeling), but I got it after 2 or 3 training sessions.

Play
The stick plays great! The lower bow helps with the 3D skills and allows you to get underneath the ball a lot easier and increases the range of control when you pull it from right to left and back. Like I said earlier hitting hard is easy, if you find the sweet spot that is, which is somewhat small. But when you do, the goalie stands almost no chance!

The thing that surprised me as well was how easy it was to keep hits low on the ground. With lowbows you sometimes have to work a bit harder to keep your hits low on the ground, but with this stick it’s easy. I’m guessing the 23mm curve instead of 24/25 has something to do with that.

Flicking and aerials aren’t that special. the certainly aren’t bad, but are not extraordinarily good . It’s a great dragflick stick though! But if that’s what you really want to use the stick for, then the Samurai might help you out even more!

Verdict
I really like this stick, but primarily because it delivers what I wanted.

I wanted to get something with a bit more power and that’s definitely what I got. After getting used to the stiffness, dribbing and 3D-skills were easy. Hits and tomahawks are fast and easy to keep them grounded. Aerials and fast flicks are easy to do as well, but not better than other sticks I’ve tried.

What you get with this stick is a stick that can do everything well but hit just a bit harder than the rest. And if that’s what you’re looking for, like me, then that’s what you should get.

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He's back!
But where is the Revolution?
I have a friend whose Bluesteel from that year has a huge hole in the end of the toe.
Be wary about the end cap though. I would've re glued it before I put my own grips on.

I wish I knew where the Revolution was, it's taking forever.
And I put tape over the endcap to keep it secure and to make it a bit thicker. I already regripped this stick like 3 or 4 times in the couple of weeks that i've had it. Done with regripping for now